Massive Increase In Narco Submarines Smuggling Across Atlantic

[@relwaretep]

That flat panel at the back of the rigid looks a bit like a starlink unit

[@foobarf8766]

Iridium more likely. Starlink panels aren't omnis AFAIK

[@beeble2003]

You're saying they have the internet, as well as the all-you-can-eat cocaine buffet? Conventional cruise lines have nothing on these guys!

[@lukeknight1133]

ok

[@marcusott2973]

Is it possible that some actually only cut down the hulls of sailing yachts. Would be easier than laying down the whole glassfibre hull in the middle of the jungle. Old sailing yachts are cheap and prolific in the Caribbean.

[@williammclaughlin2606]

That’s what they all are. They all start with an already existing boat hull. Then they are lengthened / covered to haul coke. If you look around on google you can find other boats in the building process

[@pyroactivatorandsensorydev9817]

They are made out of Ferro cement.

[@andresmartinezramos7513]

1:40 the main reasons are an interesting combination. Most of the narco trade from South America came to Spain through Galicia, it has an extensive and difficult coast. There are many sailors in the area and they would operate the dinghys that rendezvous with ships carrying the drugs towards Europe. The inland area is also rugged, foresty and with small villages, making for very easy hiding spots. A number of distribution networks exist because of the already existing drug smuggling. As to why it started. Two main reasons. It is one of the closer areas to the Caribbean and many Galicians emigrated across to South America setting the relations and knowledge that would latter on help with the smuggling.

[@VictorGarciaR]

Great video overall, just a small point: In the map first shown at 1:15, the end of the route is not aimed at Galicia (located just on top of Portugal). It is instead pointed to the border between Spain and France. The distance itself is not a big deal (370 miles - 600km) but the important thing is the reason why they choose Galicia. Unlike the Canary Islands it is in the european mainland, and the coast is isolated, rocky but with plenty of small beaches between clifs, low population, etc. It is ideal for clandestine operations. Last year cocaine bails were found of the coast of northen Galicia and Asturias, someone ditched them and the currents spread them on the beaches of the area. (local currents flow towards france) Source: (1) I am a local and (2) It is not the first time ilegal goods are smugled there. You just need to find a local fisherman with dubious morals, they know the coastline and are financially struggling

[@WildBillCox13]

A useful addition to the forum. Thanks for posting it.

[@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis]

I would not be surprised if there are many places with names like “Smugglers’ Cove” in the area as a result of the long tradition of smuggling cargo there.

[@PRAR1966]

As a yachtsman I find the route given to be in need of modification - due to current and wave height/patten in order to stop constant exposeure/stress due to cresting🌊 . Straight across to Africa (South equatorial) and then North to Cabo Verde etc is more likely.

[@FoolOfAToke]

Would something the size of these vessels have to resupply if such a route were needed or do you think they could carry food/provisions of a sufficient amount?

[@petergerdes1094]

@@FoolOfATokeI'm sure food doesn't have to be resupplied -- give the crew limited food in dry powder form (eg huel/Soylent) plus a kilo of coke to suppress appetite and maybe some fishing supplies while water could be RO filtered -- fuel may be more of an issue.

[@petergerdes1094]

Your route may decrease wear on the boat and risk to the crew but it drastically increases the chance of being interdicted along the shore (either by law enforcement or other criminals). Remember, both the boats and the crew are considered disposable.

[@rcajavus8141]

@@petergerdes1094 also, the ammunt may sound impressive to outsiders but for real supply to europe those are just too small. current drug trafficing is through huge shipping companies where you ship no less than 10 tonnes. theese narco subs are some small players private gig

[@danielmartin7838]

They may not have the logistical capacity to transport from Africa. Give it a minute

[@petergerdes1094]

Who needs food when you've got 2 metric tons of coke?

[@beeble2003]

And that's why that one boat only had 900kg of coke by the time the Spanish Coast Guard found it!

[@petergerdes1094]

@@beeble2003 Funny but even at 100g a day it's 1kg for someone on a ten day trip. This is going to be essentially pure coke (cut it at destination) and the ld50 of coke is 100mg/kg so for a person weighing 100kg they are going to die at about 10g of cocaine. Ok fine it's got a half-life of only about an hour but still 10g a day would be quite alot and 100g a day is almost certainly going to be fatal.

[@VolkerHett]

You know what they say about getting high on your own supply? And when you've ever crossed the atlantic on a boat, you know you need some calories, too,

[@petergerdes1094]

@@VolkerHett Sure, but you get an RO filter and some huel or other powdered dried food stuff. You don't need that much.

[@alt5494]

The quality of work makes kyber pass look professional.

[@almerindaromeira8352]

I've seen a short documentary about the RIB interceptions in Portugal. Every other day the police/navy goes out to chase them. The theory is that there are several offloading points south of Portugal where the RIBs start their runs to Portugal and Spain. They know they are being watched by the C-295s and P-3 aircraft. Speed is their main advantage. In Portugal the police is allowed to use apprehended hardware, so there is an arms race going on between good and bad guys. In the graveyard where they impound the wrecked RIBs you see a lot of horsepower. They run the outboards aground if need be, the boats seem almost disposable.

[@MM22966]

Same kind of thing happened off southern Florida back in the day.

[@johnpublic6582]

If you have a billion dollars of cargo to deliver, a few thousand for boats makes them disposable.

[@almerindaromeira8352]

@@johnpublic6582 try rather hundreds of thousands, but yes I understand your point. Just don't forget it's not easy to get such equipment and not get noticed. How many people are legit buying 300hp+ outboards?

[@beeble2003]

@@johnpublic6582 The UN reckons that the wholesale price of cocaine was about €40 per gram from 1990 to 2010, so I guess it's still about the same now. That means a two-ton load is only worth about €100M to the smugglers -- quite a long way from a billion.

[@MM22966]

@@johnpublic6582 Liberty Ships: "Stop copying us!"

[@WildBillCox13]

6:07 Four outboard motors. We used to call them Cigarette Boats in the Caribbean. Used by smugglers, of course.

[@HISuttonCovertShores]

Spanish term is 'ghost gliders' (planeadora fantasma) if I recall correctly. Cool label

[@andresmartinezramos7513]

@@HISuttonCovertShores Most of the coke that came from Colombia to Galicia came in that way.

[@rgc8786]

​@@HISuttonCovertShoreswell, besides fantom in the sense of ghost, it also means braggart.

[@MadisonAtteberry]

Why 'cigarette'?

[@LewisTheFly888]

@@MadisonAtteberry Good question. Either smuggling cigarettes or I think there is a brand that produces these boats en masse in the US. Characteristic shape. And I just checked Google - both those reasons - used to smuggle cigars and cigarettes AND a brand started producing them in the 1970's approx🙂

[@mytube001]

My boat, which is probably half the displacement and hull volume of these trans-oceanic narco subs, cruises at five knots on half a liter of diesel per nautical mile. If we double that, and then consider that there's around 3500 nm between Brazil and Spain, you'd need roughly three tons of diesel to make the trip unrefueled. A bit more with reserves. That's a lot, but would probably work for these boats.

[@Holabirdsupercluster]

What's the heaviest load of dope you've carried, just for comparison purposes?

[@CoffeeAndPaul]

We're looking at maybe the last purpose-built pirate vessels ever. These semi-submersibles are fascinating. Imagine crossing the Atlantic in one of these suckers. Crazy.

[@quickestscoped7603]

"last"?

[@beeble2003]

Why do you think they're pirate vessels, and why do you think they'll be the last ever?

[@patavinity1262]

Smuggling vessels rather than pirate vessels. And as long as an international market for narcotics exists, I think we can predict more of these to come.

[@CB-mn4lf]

I think you might want to look up the definition of ‘pirate’ and ‘last’. These are smuggling vessels and they are being actively produced and used.

[@Gunni1972]

@@beeble2003 Because the "NEXT GEN" will be "Uncrewed, and Stealth" according to the US Airforce. We know, that the Drug Cartels develop their technology in parallel to US Military. Why? Because that's the one they NEED to match.

[@SLPFPV]

Is there any possibility that recent advances in interdiction tech/procedure caused an increase in the number of detections? Are they landing on other coasts but just not being found?

[@williambinkley8879]

I recall an incident in the early 90s of a couple of submarines being discovered being built in Columbia. This technology has been maturing for a long time.

[@nox5555]

but not that much, there were tiny subs in WW2 that are still ony detectable by a couple of navys.

[@ErnestLordGoring]

Thanks. Do you think there are more narcosubs in the Atlantic, or are more being spotted as police focus on it?

[@matthewdev]

I'd say there's be more on the Atlantic, it's not like you can bring south American drugs into Europe by land, like you can into the US

[@ozAqVvhhNue]

4:00 The term Semi-Submarine could have maybe prevented people from complaining about semantics. But please don't stop using Narco Submarine, it just sounds way cooler :D

[@WildBillCox13]

Self driving cars . . . how long until we get self navigating narco subs?

[@skenzyme81]

Jeff Goldblum Voice: "Drugs... find a way."

[@Gunni1972]

Yeah. Thanks to Reagan, that's another "War" the USA lost.

[@joshualux8309]

Thank you for your videos. I’m always looking forward to them.

[@cbhlde]

Same here. :)

[@napalmholocaust9093]

At the dock 🤣

[@RaeSyngKane]

Great content as always. As you’re covering the topic, is there a way to buy a copy of your “Narco Submarines: Covert Shores Recognition” book?

[@brianomalley7501]

Another very informative video well done as always looking forward to the next great subject

[@ned900]

Awesome! Whats with the humps in the exhaust systems? Great vid, love your content.

[@7im-800]

Water

[@mytube001]

That's to prevent water from flooding the engine. The exhaust pressure can overcome a little (that's how water-cooled exhausts work) but a full flood will kill the engine.

[@HISuttonCovertShores]

Stop water running up the exhaust into the engine, like the reverse of the ubend in your toilet

[@Gunni1972]

@@HISuttonCovertShores Now they only need a nice weather window to do that journey, as the hull is Semi-submersed already, 1 big wave leaves it dead in the water. Navigation skills galore.

[@ryanzwiep1162]

Very insightful. I can never get enough of your commentary on subs.

[@patavinity1262]

If the cartels ever figure out teardrop hulls and nuclear reactors, we'll really be in trouble.

[@jabaier2]

Imagine the Coast Guard taking over decommissioned 688s to Red October some narc-lear subs

[@alexanderstone9463]

Nuclear material tends to be very highly regulated. We don’t mess around when it comes to stuff that could make bombs. However a Radioisotopic Thermoelectric Generator can be made of material that’s not as well regulated, and they may be within the capabilities of the cartels.

[@extrasystole]

the author does a monumental job

[@abrunosON]

There is a distinction between "street" cocaine and what these narco-subs are transporting, that is, cocaine paste which is the not directly consumable and once delivered is "cut" with pharmacological sedatives (I know that codeine, a dental local anesthetic, was used until the 90s) and then impurities added, like sawdust in soviet bread, both of which have considerable lower value and not economically sensible to be transported along with the base-paste. What these ships transport has to be further processed near their destination which means that once the cargo arrives the load is multiplied a minimum of three times (one ton becomes 3 ton, 1/3 paste, 1/3 sedative and 1/3 of impurities) but if I remember correctly it can go up to 6 times. My dad had his career in the Drug Repression Department of the Federal Police in Brazil and I read a couple of his files from the late 80s.

[@tessierashpool7692]

6:15 is that a Starlink antenna?

[@HorstMichel-mh7gv]

Thats a nice deep insight into this topic.

[@Nurse_Diesel]

Looks like a Starlink panel on the back of that inflatable. beautiful boat by the way.

[@steveo6034]

That's definitely a Starlink phased array antenna

[@malakov5]

What happens to the builder/designer when the narco subs get captured/caught?

[@mbeard89]

I got the opportunity to stand on one in 2008 when I was in the Coast Guard at the small boat station Key West.

[@Pabbley]

Thanks for these, love listening to you talk about submarines!

[@LackofFaithify]

That RIB is nuts. What the heck. Might as well make a giant sign that says, "ARREST ME!!!"

[@andresmartinezramos7513]

Speed is their main advantage, not stealth. 1- Get the drugs near or on shore. 2- A number of prearranged courriers are waiting disguised and lying low. 3- They get a hold of the merchandise. 4- They immediately scatter into homes, backyards and other places in populated areas and when in the countryside they get away in vehicles. The RIBs are generally expendable. The point is that you may catch a few of the courriers with the drugs, but enough will get through.

[@andresmartinezramos7513]

See: SANLÚCAR: Un HELICÓPTERO de ADUANAS maniobra en la PLAYA para evitar el SAQUEO de la DROGA | RTVE

[@Gunni1972]

@@andresmartinezramos7513 Yes, these kinda boats are never bought or sold, and that's why they can never catch the Culprits. ARE YOU THAT STUPID? You could easily track EVERY single sold Vessel of that Kind, or even the bloody engines, once they are sold in bulk. (Job of Intelligence services, and USA has 17 of them). ONE must be responsible for this Lack of overview. These Boats look Brand-spanking new. I can understand if you can't track a sailing Yacht that was made 40 years ago, and that is turned into a semi-submersible somewhere in the bush, hauled via Truck to shore etc. But the recipient Speed boats still need to be stationed somewhere. And when they leave their ports, the bloody port ward KNOWS. Pretty massive, those things.

[@danielmartin7838]

Got to catch it first

[@LackofFaithify]

@@danielmartin7838 Not sure why everyone is so hard up on the apparently mind breaking warp drive on the craft. It has 4 outboards. Think about it, who is doing most of the interdicting of these things? And most navies/coast guard equivalents in the west have access to? Helicopters. Yeah certain trick boats can outrun them, but as outlandish as it is, its not one of those.

[@RYRY_MURPHY]

Thank you for the content. Keep up the good work. I want to build my own narco submarine style boat for ocean exploration.

[@TheVigilant109]

Many thanks. Very interesting

[@backpackmc]

Have they empirically figured out the engine noise l / visual & infrared signature level to stay below the filter levels the US has with its satellite and oceanic monitors? They must be staying at or below the noise floor levels, otherwise it wouldn't be difficult to automate detection and produce alerts for various navies / drug enforcement.

[@johnpublic6582]

You assume they want to stop them.

[@Jon6429]

Is that a Starlink antenna on the rigid inflatable?

[@bobotea1234]

how do we know that the boats leaving the east coast of SA are not going to the east coast of NA?

[@nullc0ntext]

As a Floridian, good. They've been losing too many bricks of fishscale on our beaches lately. Price of coke is too high as it is!

[@MM22966]

Florida Man needs his Colombian Go-Fuel?

[@nullc0ntext]

@@MM22966 Lord man, no. I only buy Peruvian... they make the real quality stuff these days.

[@MM22966]

@@nullc0ntext You just fell for their "mountain-grown" marketing campaign! Mountains always sound impressive to a Floridian who has never seen one!

[@danielmartin7838]

How long would a trip across the Atlantic take in one of these things?

[@LobstersLobsters]

I wonder how many have been lost at sea.

[@aightimmaheadout3573]

this topic is so extremely interesting, would love to see more

[@brianevans2819]

Enjoyed this thank you, well researched and presented.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Great video, _H.I._ 👍

[@jebise1126]

wait... wasnt this suppose to be one way trip anyway? was that traveling west empty? i mean just crew? or different cargo?

[@matt79de]

Heh, thanks for the "Red October" quote... 🙂

[@tuvoca825]

Would such subs be any good for sending wheat through the Black Sea? It seems like the cargo wouldn't be food safe after all those toxic fumes.

[@cocodog85]

so how are these low profile boats detected? what are the narco smugglers doing wrong for them to be caught so easily? and how about a video on life aboard a narco sub. do they hot bunk?

[@rollyherrera623]

It would appear that sub building is a very lucrative business, with many builders with vast designs...Interesting topic!

[@properyayeet]

I think the reason they aren’t landing as much out of Spain and Portugal is because in Galicia particularly and in portable there’s already a set up for using these submersibles instead of fishing trawlers and so on whilst elsewhere the smuggling methods are historically different and work so won’t take the risk of changing

[@Stealth86651]

The funny thing is like other drug busts, we are lucky to be catching even 5% of the total shipped. Would be interesting to know the total amount they're shipping with those subs, especially as they eventually become unmanned and more stealthy/reliable.

[@Holabirdsupercluster]

Why do you think they don't use these vessels for the Mexico-CONUS leg of the Pacific route? I suppose the SoCal coast might be a bit too crowded, but further north...

[@Holabirdsupercluster]

Is it just that much easier to get a dirty container across the land border?

[@ImWolfie1]

I found your counterpart for space content. Scott Manley!

[@crestdazoltral7705]

What would happen if a nacro boat raised a flag, identified once via radio challenged, and continued at full speed refusing to allow anyone on board in the middle of the Atlantic? Would anyones rules of engagement allow engaging and boarding a vessel because of its suspicious construction alone?

[@MM22966]

Yes.

[@JessWLStuart]

Great presentation!

[@sharokhankhan23]

What materials do they use ?

[@HISuttonCovertShores]

most are fiberglass with marine plywood elements

[@thomas_jay]

Could this be an indicator that the strengthening of port security has an effect on the smuggling?

[@obbayazit]

Spain should consider Turkish UAV aksungur. It is very suitable for long endurance patrols with electro optics or SAR radar which could find these subs as they don't stay fully submerged long. Aksungur was successfully used to find rogue seamines in Black Sea. While the search area is far larger with more drones Spain would have a better chance of finding these subs.

[@wylnd]

Would it be legal to build and use one of these for recreational purposes? Like having no cocaine in there but living quarters and ballast. I mean having the low profile, being all sneaky. You could announce yourself to the relevant authorities beforehand though 🤔

[@beeble2003]

You can build whatever boats you want. Just expect a lot of police attention if you build a boat that looks like a drug smuggler.

[@edwardscott3262]

Being too stealthy is such a common problem with modern composite boats they sell cheap radar reflectors you can install. I find that kinda funny. Stealth was the Uber tech for so long. Now it happens by mistake. 😂

[@gerryjamesedwards1227]

Anyone who crosses the Atlantic on one of those is crazy. The thought of trying to navigate from basically sea-level is bad enough, GPS would be virtually useless, but the big Atlantic rollers would toss any of these vessels around like a cork. It would be like being in a long, thin washing machine. I also doubt that the ventilation on them is very well thought out, so they're probably full of exhaust fumes a lot of the time, too.

[@philjameson292]

Agreed. I bet that they are well dosed with coke to bother

[@johnpublic6582]

The people hired to drive these things stand to make as much money as they would for the rest of their life, so some decide it is worth the discomfort and risk.

[@nsmith440A]

@@johnpublic6582 - I suspect the key phrase here is 'the rest of their life.'

[@ulf5738]

Interesting video 👌

[@gafrers]

Interesting and detailed as always

[@kevincook1018]

These vessels would appear to operate at low speeds. They look like displacement hulls with a very low freeboard. Any naval architect would tell us the hull speed of a 64 foot displacement is about 11 Knots. Much above this and the resistance would begin to increase roughly proportional to speed cubed. Fuel requirements would become prohibitive.

[@deanperkins2091]

10:35 No wonder they caught that Narco Sub... that thing sticks out like a sore thumb. I wonder how much of a bias we are seeing in Narco Sub designs, could there be a different style so effective they haven't yet been seized?

[@louisquatorze9280]

Sutton is the best at his craft.

[@Guesswho725]

Fascinating. What can this tell us about the navel radars that detect these? These vessels are shorter than the waves and we can pick them up. What does this imply about the effectiveness of our low observable sea skimming anti ship missiles?

[@shopdog831]

I find these things fascinating.

[@martymcfeels2934]

How long until nuclear powered or aip narco submarines

[@Paul-rs4gd]

Has there ever been a design which magnetically limpets onto another vessel to hitch a lift across the atlantic? I imagined something that detaches autonomously when it nears the destination coast, and broadcasts its location by satellite phone, in encrypted format to allow collection.

[@lolcanoable]

People won't get mad about calling them submarines when the single vs double hulled debate starts about them.

[@Seasonstobecheerful]

Nice update, and end title meme 😅

[@Br1cht]

Informative

[@PooGEr97]

Happy to see another video from you covering this topic

[@MRptwrench]

Anyone who's spent hours below deck with little to no fresh air or sunlight, even in mild weather is shaking their head right about now. Makes you wonder what life back home must be like for someone to consider a trans-atlantic run in one of those crafts. I'd probably be relieved to be boarded by authorities.

[@sandyago4735]

Damn. I missed the boat

[@bigsarge2085]

Intriguing.

[@foobarf8766]

The death traps the actually submersible ones must be tho

[@Korporaal1]

So they rendez-vous with cargo ships and fishing trawlers, but also with this whopping 1980-ies retro Miami Vice speedmonster.... Which somehow stuck out like a sore thumb 😀.

[@wonkagaming8750]

a video on the indonesian navy?

[@TheWizardGamez]

this is some of the coolest tech on the high seas. if they ever figure automation or sonar... its over.

[@allangibson8494]

Landing in Spain has advantages for native Spanish speakers to avoid attention.

[@HISuttonCovertShores]

I think it's more a factor of which criminal groups are involved

[@hifi6638]

THESE ARE NOT SUBMARINES!!! These are surface boats with very low freeboard. Calling them submarines is like calling a car with big tailfins an airplane. Geez…

[@chamonix4658]

3:57 lmao

[@nonsquarepixels]

Maybe they're more like modern Monitors, except, they don't want to monitor anything nor be monitored, so I propose the term Nonitor.

[@FeeNixBeech]

Feels like the last century is repeating in a way...

[@napalmholocaust9093]

When they reach the fog banks, their foghorn isn't ideal, it just goes "toot toot" through a straw. Very ineffective.

[@jordibt1789]

3:08 that map of Europe is Crazy damn

[@rgc8786]

Not only Europe, I fear! 😂😂

[@Letsberealish]

The government needs to force starlink to turn over data on suspicious starlink activity. Easiest way to identify and find these subs as they cross oceans.

[@topkekfilmproductions3464]

Chilling to imagine the crew dumping their poo straight into the ocean... gross

[@Negito-b6u]

Don't know how detectable these vessels are. But if one was loaded with explosive instead of drugs. Remotely operated. Presume they would be a real headache.

[@bradenanderson6989]

Narco UUVs have gotta be the next big thing

[@bholdr----0]

Are these really transiting the entire Atlantic (let alone the Pacific)? I think it is more likely that they are, given their (lack of) fuel capacity, seaworthiness, speed, and endurance re: food, water, etc, just being towed begind (more) legitimate vessels and making the (first and) last few hundred miles of the trafficking trip on their own... Such would both increase the likelihood of a successful shipment and increase the safety of the nominally legitimate ships that they are likely (literally) attached to...? I just cant see the same kind of low-profile boats that are designed for relatively short trips up the Pacific coast being used for crossing the Atlantic, especially from Brazil to Europe, rather than just completing the last bit of a smuggling trip, which does make sense. Thoughts? (Also- How desperate are the crews? There has to be a limit. And, The fact that all of the detected subs have been found near land may or may not be evidence that they are not transiting the entire Atlantic on their own- sample size, eh?)

[@HoldenDM]

Ok so how do i get my hands on the other 300 tonnes that got to north ameruca... Asking for... Science

[@Tewhill357]

The good ship Rockso!

[@willlasdf123]

Lol, one got run down by a fucking Tico! Imagine running drugs and then having one of the last cruisers in the world pull your ass over

[@Wavy_Gravy]

The navy has the most underwater mics. Never catch these guys, though.

[@nsmith440A]

That might provide hydrophone sensitivity and locations the Navy isn't interested in sharing.

[@DumbledoreMcCracken]

Fully submersible, autonomous, glide vehicle makes more sense

[@SK762f]

How can the US Navy capture a Narco Sub off the coast of Guyana, isn't outside of their jurisdiction.

[@fuhlavaflave]

"The payload consisted of 3000kg of cocaine. The 1 kg packages were wrapped as bales. 152 bales were found". Ah, I see they have 80kg of cocaine in evidence.

[@TheShantry]

Was missing your voice

[@smacfe]

That was Hunter's supply for July!

[@glenjohnson9302]

Years ago I was talking to a DEA agent. Very low level rookie. We got talking and I told him they are luck I wasn't working with the cartels because I have a lot of ways to make running hard to stop. A few years later I was being questioned and investigated. It turns out they started doing a few methods I had come up with. Including the boats like this. Although my design was a bit different. But only a bit. They cleared me but had me detail my concepts further. Only a few have been used.